If Allegheny County is convinced that a countywide revaluation can only be completed by next spring, then it might have to see how feasible it would be to get the numbers ready for the County’s largest municipality (Pittsburgh) and school district (Pittsburgh Public, which includes the Borough of Mt. Oliver along with the City) first. That is the line of thinking by the Judge supervising the progress of the reassessment.

Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh schools, the County, and all municipalities use a calendar year for a fiscal year. So when the new values were to be set for 2012, those taxing bodies certainly expected them to be ready for the start of the fiscal year. As a printed report put it, the delay means those taxing bodies "…may decide to use current property values for another half year, try to estimate new millage rates or delay sending out tax bills until the new assessments have been certified."

Would Pittsburgh object to going to the head of the queue? They should not. Recall that as recently as the 2009 budget the City had this to say about the reassessment situation: "Like all other municipalities in Allegheny County, the City of Pittsburgh is faced with the prospect of little or no growth in this largest revenue source due to the County’s use of a base year assessment system…The base year assessment system also fails to reflect changes in property values, suppresses growth, and leads to inaccurate assessments and disproportionate taxation throughout the City"

Why delay this situation any longer? The City should want to lead the way in moving the County toward accurate assessments, especially if officials still hold the opinion of the negative effects of the base year plan.